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Treading over familiar ground is either very brave or
very stupid and as is the case with everything Seth McFarlane
does it manages to be both plus funny. As with “Blue Harvest”
the predecessor “Star Wars” parody that McFarlane and his
band of loonies tackled, “Something , Something , Something
Dark Side” fidelity works to this latest parody although
in this case we get “The Empire Strikes Back” as the focus
of the parody. Reproducing scenes and using John Williams
score works in favor the show but the writing quality has
fallen from the heights of “Family Guy” after it returned
to TV; most of the jokes in “SSSDS” have the sour after
taste of reflux—you’re reminded that you’ve had this meal
before but it tasted better the first time. ***
That’s not to say that “SSSDS” is a BAD “episode” of
“Family Guy”; this particular episode falls firmly into
the mediocre category. Fans will enjoy this but it isn’t
anything all that special. ---
Image & Sound:
It’s odd to see a show like “Family Guy” still using
a 1.33:1 aspect ratio this late in the game. There’s nothing
wrong with a full screen presentation but the demographic
audience for “Family Guy” are early adopters who probably
have widescreen TV’s so it is a bit odd that it was presented
this way especially for the Blu-ray. ***
Color positively pops with crisp lines, a surprisingly
rich level of detail. Blacks as rich and deep as a pool
of oil and, aside from a few digital artifacts the image
quality remains remarkably rich and consistent throughout.
What truly makes this stand out compared to the screener
DVD that Fox sent was the richer color and level of detail
so if you must have this pick up the Blu-ray ***
With a DTS-HD lossless 5.1 mix the audio here is a
step up from the regular presentation of “Family Guy” but
keep in mind that this is primarily a sitcom for all intents
and purposes and audio tends to be verbally driven NOT action/ambient
driven. The 5.1 mix sounds nice but it could have been utilized
better.
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